Legalization of euthanasia in Ecuador

Annals of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India)

Euthanasia is mercy killing to alleviate the pain and misery of moribund persons. The thought in this regard is “Right to Life” includes “Right to Die.” This paper examines the issue of euthanasia in advanced stage of terminal cases with no possibility of reversal and it has been argued that there is a case for lifting euthanasia from the domain of human rights “Right to Die,” bringing the issue as a matter for professional opinion, a kind of medical advice/prescription. Guidelines need to be framed and criteria are laid down and notified under which euthanasia can be recommended. The decision is taken whether or not the criteria laid down are fulfilled in an objective manner. Like for other medical interventions “informed consent” is essential. In consideration of safeguards the decision is entrusted to a medical board and is subject to a legal prescrutiny. Professionally prescribed decision will to a great extent reduce emotive response surrounding euthanasia. The family may not h...

Journal of Law Policy and Globalization, 2012

The euthanasia is one of the most debated issues in the world. The main focus of the debate has been weather euthanasia should be legalized or not. Euthanasia generally means a mercy killing. Contrary views and arguments exist in this regard. The present paper is a moderate attempt to examine these contrary arguments. The paper concludes with the observations that debate on euthanasia is still grappled with dilemma. This debate is continuing one as some people are of the view that the life is sacred and no one has got the right to end it whereas others say that life belongs to oneself so each person has got the right to decide what he or she wants to do with it even if it amounts to dying.

2014

There is some presupposition of the exclusion of death as a right from the human rights jurisprudence. The purpose of this work is to establish that everyone has an inherent “right to suicide” and can validly exercise this right where legitimate conditions for its exercise arise. Suicide in this work covers three forms of consensual killing: suicide, mercy killing by family and physician assisted death. This work advocates the recognition of the authority of family and other persons including physicians to assist or take other positive steps towards facilitating the death of a terminally ill person in endless pains with (or without) the consent of the person involved especially cases involving infants, persons with diminished mental capacities and other categories of persons with deficient competence and rationality to determine what is best in relation to certain medical conditions.

Jurnal Sosialisasi: Jurnal Hasil Pemikiran, Penelitian dan Pengembangan Keilmuan Sosiologi Pendidikan, 2021

In the present era, there is tremendous changes have taken place in beliefs and practices pertaining to the beginning of life. Family planning and birth control instead of being condemned are now accepted as a duty and responsibility. Now abortion is legal in certain circumstances, if abortion could be legal in certain circumstances, then why is there no euthanasia law for the people who have no hope of their life? All human beings have the fundamental right to live. However, there is always a dilemma involved in letting the suffering people die and killing the innocent patient under a false pretext. It can be argued that the issues involved in euthanasia have a significant implication for the individuals in society and to the policymakers. Many people pray that they will not outlive their usefulness and became a burden to their next kin, forcing them to spend large sums of money only to postpone inevitable. Euthanasia is a controversial topic and people are becomING increasingly aw...

Any reflection on euthanasia should be made from a medical, social, legal and bioethical perspective. Due to the multifaceted aspects of this issue, we make an interdisciplinary analysis with a bioethical assessment. As is known, euthanasia is based on the administration of drugs and other substances with the intent to cause the death of a person at their request or that of their representatives, in order to bring about death using a " theoretically safe, relatively quick and painless method ". This definition, in our opinion, doesn't intend to explain all the meaning of the euthanasia and assisted suicide practice in a country where the euthanasia law is legalized so we present this report to analyze the principal areas affected by the law.

International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2024

Euthanasia is one of the most debatable and emotive subjects and has remained controversial on ethical, medical and legal grounds in 20th century and it still is. During all this this time public opinion, decisions of courts, and legal and medical approaches to the issue of euthanasia has been conflicting. It has sharply divided scientific & unscientific public to its supporters and opponents. All major religions are strongly against legalizing killing. A majority of the intellectuals are of the opinion that the sanctity of life, as a primary principle, should be given due consideration before legalizing euthanasia or mercy killing. In the current study authors will probe into the approaches of various countries, in different regions of the world, towards Euthanasia. In some Western European countries, euthanasia is a legal medical procedure backed up by the law and it is conducted for the ease of the critically ill patients. On the other hand, we do have countries where euthanasia is considered a murder like any other murder. On the third place, there are many states where euthanasia is a murder committed under some specific circumstances. In this manuscript the authors have tried to discuss different approaches towards euthanasia; how it is dealt with in different countries; it’s advantages, disadvantages and a comparison between the countries where euthanasia is considered as a murder and between the countries where it is a completely legal medical procedure.

EIRP Proceedings, 2020

Respect fullness for every person's right to life and human dignity can be found in most of the great religions and ideologies throughout the world. The right to life is a fundamental human right, for it is a divine gift, which, by its importance, surpasses the sphere of personal interest, making it relevant for the whole society. Euthanasia or the recognition of the right to death is considered a very delicate subject, with many pros and cons opinions and which requires an approach on multiple directions: religious, medical, social and judicial. Therefore, in this article I will try to show that life is of utmost importance to humans and also why christianism saw death as a normality, like a part of life, that death represents a moment and not a final stage. Moreover, we will assess the position of a European legislator regarding the right to die, knowing that the Romanian legislator is in the position of absolute rejection towards euthanasia practices, and the new Criminal Code-Law nr. 287/2009 stipulates the act of murder upon the victim's request as a lesser form of murder, so resubmitting the tradition existing in our national law, this conduct being criminalized by prior art. nr. 468 of the 1936 Criminal Code.

BioLaw Journal, 2020

This paper tackles one of the classic queries surrounding the analysis of the right to life: what is the relationship, if any, between the fundamental right to life and the capacity to end one’s own life, especially with the help of others? To answer this question the study explores the meaning of the fundamental right to life paying special attention, on the one hand, to the language used to proclaim it and, on the other, the doctrines of the ECtHR, the Spanish Constitutional Court, the Colombian Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Italian Constitutional Court and the German Constitutional Court.

Death across cultures

In this chapter we describe and analyse the public debates on death with dignity in Argentina, from the first attempts to regulate the rights of terminally ill patients to the political process that resulted in the 'death with dignity' Act. Based on documentary sources and sociology of public problems approach we discuss the process of legal change regarding treatment refusal at the end of life. After a short sketch of the history of the debates on death with dignity, we discuss the social and political factors that led to a legal change regarding death with dignity. We posit that the political context and how the debate on end-of-life care was introduced into the public domain explain the legal changes and ethical concerns related to a death with dignity in Argentina.

While deciding the debate on Euthanasia, the conflict between the principle of sanctity of life and the rights of self determination and dignity of a human being needs to be resolved. Rather than allowing right to die as a general rule by legalizing euthanasia, it may be allowed as necessary exception only in rarest of rare cases, in passive form in appropriate cases where the individual is dying and gives informed consent or where he or she cannot give consent and as per the genuine medical opinion, the death is near and certain and, to withdraw the life support system is in the best interest of the patient. Here the researcher try to explain the meaning and concept of euthanasia and its legal pros and cons.